Blogging Social Difference in LA: Week 5 -- Surf City, USA and its Romantic Perfection

Southern California is world-renowned for its idealic and utopic reputation. Starting with the pioneers of California who marketed Los Angeles as the utopic haven of perfect climate and freedom, to the cultural revolution instigated by the Beach Boys in the 1960s, Southern California has always retained its unbreakable image of beautiful weather, clean beaches, and socio-economic liberty. Kling, Olin, and Poster described Orange County as "a trouble-free, healthy life for families...modern housing, rural open space, high-quality schools, superb amenities, and a temperate climate that permitted an easy-going outdoor life year-round," thus painting an utopic image of the area. Yet, we know that this image of serenity and beauty is only really applicable to a few areas of the Southern California geography, leaving the rest of the area struggling with socio-economic differences. One such example of the utopic image of Southern California is Huntington Beach, or as it's more commonly known, "Surf City, USA".

Huntington Beach, located in southern Orange County, is a beautiful city, covered in palm trees, clean streets, and well-organized landscaping. The city is relatively large, containing a population of nearly 200,000 people. It is also easily accesible from several major freeways (405, PCH) and thus draws a lot attraction from tourism, especially for its beaches and surf-worthy waves. The sun is always shining, and the smell of the ocean rolling through this coastline city truly gives it its paradisal feeling.

As I walked through the streets and drove around the city, I noticed, however, that the city is not entirely perfect in its socio-economic spatiality. The city is rather homogenous in its ethnic makeup, as most people in the city seem to be caucasian, middle class, and relatively well-off. While there is not necessarily anything wrong with this, I couldn't help by wonder why there were so few minority families strolling the beach along with the white ones, or why there only seemed to be white teenagers milling around the downtown area. Why were minorities so few and scarce in this city? Why was it that the only minorities present in Huntington Beach, an affluent suburb of Southern California, seemed to be those present in its service sector?

Thus, I came to the conclusion after considerable observation, that social difference is a large part of what comes to play in the makeup of this city. Looking at several variables on Simply Maps, it becomes evident that Huntington Beach is an affluent suburb, with higher than average housing prices, a higher than standard consumer price index, and overall higher incomes per household. As we covered in lecture, these variables are often used as ways of controlling the social makeup of a city, allowing only certain types of socio-economic groups into the city. For example, the higher than average house prices means that only higher than average income families can afford housing in the area, which is evidenced in the maps. As you can see in the map below, very few areas of Huntington Beach have an average household income of less than $75,000, reaffirming the higher average income status of the area.

Additionally, the city is only accessible if you have access to a car, as everything is extremely spread out and the public transportation system is not nearly sufficient. Thus, those without access to cars do not have access to the city, and move to areas closer to their socio-economic means. This concept of the social division caused by economic means follows closely to the discussion in lecture of the restriction of access to the city through physical, social, or consumption means. Huntington Beach, full of gated communities, higher than average priced products, and overal feeling of white-affluence, keeps minorities out of the city, creating an indirect relationship of social difference between its residents and those of neighboring cities.

A large part of the creation of this social difference within Huntington Beach can be seen in the work written by Kling, Olin, and Poster in their work, "The Emergence of Postsuburbia". The authors comment on the growth of Orange County as a homogenous, well-off suburb that espoused post-WWII ideals of a family, affluence, and the American Dream, alluding to the influence of these ideals on modern-day Orange County. The area is still dominated by the ideas of creating homogeneity within neighborhoods, and of allowing the home to be the center of city, rather than a working area or shopping area. Kling, Olin, and Poster also comment on the automobile-centricity of Orange County, reaffirming that Orange County is only really accessible to those who have cars. Finally, the authors indicate that Orange County is largely based upon a consumption lifestyle whereby the resident does not interact with others, but focuses on their shopping needs without sociality, and moves on to other areas of the city. Thus, Huntington Beach is a creation of the expression of social differentiation in the American suburb. All of these various differentiating and segregating aspects of Huntington Beach remind us that social difference is still a common aspect of modern society. Despite the advances made in social and civil rights, or the efforts of liberals and conservatives to ameliorate the stark economic and social differences present in the modern city, there still exists a strong pattern of segregation and distanciation in the spatiality of people within cities. Yet, but looking deeper into these differences, and trying to understand them, we can hopefully one day overcome them.